Curry's old magic still beats the Lakers' shiny new plan

Can a team be 25 points down in the first half and still be the one with the better plan? On Friday night at Chase Center, the Golden State Warriors made a fairly convincing case that it can.

Here is the short version. The Lakers raced out to a 25-point lead, with Luka Dončić scoring 21 in the first quarter. Then the Warriors won the second quarter 38-15, tied it at 53 by halftime and ran away to a 112-95 win in the NBA Cup group opener, according to the Press Democrat. Stephen Curry finished with 31 points, and the same report notes he passed Dominique Wilkins to move to 18th on the NBA's all-time scoring list (26,688).

The highlight is the headline, but the bench is the story

Yes, the moment everyone will clip is Curry dropping Dončić with a dribble move in the third quarter and then burying the three over him. It's great theater. But we think treating it as a Curry-versus-Luka duel misses what actually decided the game.

Look at where the points came from. Per the Daily News recap, Golden State got 50 points from its reserves, while the Lakers' bench managed seven. Dončić scored 37 and Austin Reaves added 21, yet the rest of the Lakers shot 33.3% from the field. That isn't a duel. That's a one-man offense meeting a roster that keeps showing up.

The Warriors' non-Curry starters scored just nine first-half points, and they still got to halftime tied. That tells us something about the system: when the stars aren't producing, the structure still is. Melton, Niang, Richard and Podziemski made shots and defended the perimeter. The Lakers had no such answer when their first-quarter surge cooled.

"Star-led" is not a plan, and the Lakers' turnovers prove it

The Lakers are now explicitly the Luka Lakers. Fox News' preview put it bluntly: no more LeBron, keys handed to one of the league's top assets. Dončić is leading the NBA in scoring, and nobody should pretend that isn't elite.

But a build around one creator has a cost. The Lakers' turnovers fed 27 Warriors points. Reaves had eight turnovers for the second straight game. Coach JJ Redick, speaking of his bench, said it's "the sixth game and second loss." Kessler called the collapse "the most frustrating thing." Dončić himself said "everybody gotta be better than this." Those are not the words of a team with an answer when the first quarter's magic fades.

To be fair, this is six games into a long season, and the Lakers are still 4-2. Dončić also missed Wednesday with back tightness, and the Lakers were playing their third game in four nights. We wouldn't write off Los Angeles. We'd just say that leaning on one engine invites exactly this kind of night.

Don't call the early Cup a throwaway

The lazy take is that group-stage games in October are exhibition basketball with a trophy attached. We disagree. Golden State is 3-3 and had a rough start, with Kerr openly asking for patience as the team moves to a new five-out scheme. A win over the team that blew them out on opening night, in a game that counts in Group C, is the kind of result that can turn a shaky transition into confidence.

There's also a bigger-picture point: this was the largest margin of victory in the shot clock era for a team trailing by 20 or more after the first quarter, per the Daily News, eclipsing a 1976 Warriors win over the Bulls. History aside, we think the Cup standings will probably reward games like this one, and that is reason enough to treat them seriously.

Curry's own line may be the best summary. He said those moments felt like "the third quarter Warriors of old." Nostalgia is a risky foundation, and at 38 he can't carry every night. But for now the old magic comes with depth and a system behind it.

Our verdict: the Warriors didn't prove they're better than the Lakers over a season. They proved that a 25-point lead built on one superstar is fragile, and that a 38-year-old with a deep bench can still take it apart in a quarter. If you're picking a model to bet on, take structure over star power, and take the Cup seriously.